Senate Breakthrough on Global Warming

Dear NRDC Earth Activist,

I wanted to share some terrific news from Capitol Hill.

Last week, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution that finally recognizes the
enormous problem of global warming and declares that our nation must enact
mandatory limits on the pollution that causes it. This breakthrough resolution,
which was supported by key Republicans and Democrats, sends a clear signal to
the White House, which has strongly opposed mandatory cuts.

Without a doubt, this is the biggest leap forward in our global warming
campaign in a decade. Last week's vote erases the Senate's 1997 vote against
mandatory pollution limits, which the Bush administration has relied on to
justify inaction for the past five years. The Senate has come a long way since
then, thanks in part to a relentless advocacy campaign by the NRDC Action Fund
that has helped sway many key legislators.

In fact, we played a key role in last week's historic victory. As you know, in
past years we've strongly supported the McCain-Lieberman bill, which would
force American industry to cut back on global warming pollution. Senator
McCain and Senator Lieberman deserve our everlasting gratitude for their
passionate pursuit of real action to curb global warming.

Unfortunately, we could not in good conscience support their bill this year
because it included a new provision that would have doled out billions of tax
dollars for constructing new nuclear power plants. Global warming can be
reversed more quickly without new nuclear plants, which take more than a decade
to build, pose serious environmental, health and security dangers, and divert
resources from more promising technologies.

In the end, the nuclear power provision reduced, rather than increased, Senate
support for the McCain-Lieberman bill. As a result, the White House was poised
to trumpet the Senate's inaction as an endorsement of the president's "do-
nothing" position on global warming.

But at the eleventh hour, the NRDC Action Fund went to work with Senator
Bingaman (D-NM) and drafted a "Sense of the Senate" resolution that calls on
Congress to enact mandatory limits on global warming pollution by the end of
next year. Our resolution quickly won the co-sponsorship of key members of both
parties and passed the Senate on a 53-44 vote, putting a majority on record in
favor of mandatory pollution limits.

This momentous victory has changed the politics of global warming forever. The
world has now heard the Republican-controlled Senate speak loudly and clearly:
The time for action on global warming is now!

Of course, our next great challenge is to translate the Senate resolution into
a comprehensive global warming law that we can pass through Congress.
Please make your own voice heard right now. Go to
http://www.nrdcactionfund.org/globalwarming/gwvote.asp
to see how your Senators voted on last week's resolution. Then take a minute to
email or phone them with your thanks or your disappointment -- according to
their vote. And urge them to fulfill the promise of this historic resolution by
supporting and passing a tough global warming law.

Sincerely,
John H. Adams
NRDC Action Fund
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